Chương 126: Chapter 122 – Brightwater Valley

Day 3 of Grainworks Initiative Mark woke up early and made breakfast and put his tent away. When breakfast was finished, he woke Sarah and helped her put away her tent. They headed south to figure out where the trail they were on went. With the two horses and the mule, they made great time, and before long they found fields on the west side of the path as far as the eye could see. He was not sure what was growing; they were small leafy plants not familiar to him at first glance.

Mark brought up his map to see what it revealed, which was more than he expected. He could see that the river next to them was named the Brightwater river and they were in what was named the Brightwater valley and it had a few points of interest markers mapped out for him. The first of which was named Sunvine Farms, which was pretty close to them. They continued following the trail down the river until they got to a small dock and a trail that headed west towards the farm.

As Mark looked more at the fields, he realized they were all fenced, that there was irrigation to them all, and that there were multiple distinct types of plants growing. As he approached, he realized that this was an outpost and was able to bring up the settlement interface in guest mode and take a look at the things they had listed for sale, which excited him, but so as not to spoil the surprise for Sarah, he did not say anything. As they approached the center of the outpost, they found their first person.

When the man finally realized they were not someone he recognized, the man ran over and introduced himself. Man said, "Hello, my name is Owen are you two new around here?" He kept glancing at the mule with the huge bags of goods strapped to it. Mark said, "Hello Owen my name is Mark, and this is Sara we came down the river from up north to see if there were any people down here looking to make some trades."

Owen said, "I knew you were not from around here when I saw the mule; we don't have any of those; we have lots of horses, but no mules." Mark said, "Yes, I was wondering if you could show us around we have been passing all these fields, and I don't recognize the things growing. Up north we have a lot of wheat and other various items, but those plants I don't recognize."

Owen told them that he was a tomato farmer, and in addition to tomatoes at this farm, they had peppers in a few varieties and many other vegetables. South from here, the next farm had onions, garlic, and other herbs, and across the river on the other side of the valley were orchards with apples, cherries, pears, and plums. And they sold some of the best apple cider he has ever had.

He said farther south in the valley there were other farms, but he had never been past the River Bend Trading Post, so he was not sure what all they had or where it was. Owen offered to show them his tomatoes, and Mark and Sarah agreed quickly as they wanted to see what they were doing. He took them over to his field, where his irrigation was running. his tomatoes, and he walked down the rows and made sure the water was flowing well and fixed a few small issues as they walked around.

Before long Mark realized that Owen just loved to talk. And he told them about how he was working on a couple new types of tomatoes that, using a skill he recently got, he was able to breed with specific traits to make them more hardy and better flavored. And he was working to refine the skill. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. As they were walking through the field, Sarah grabbed Mark's arm and pointed.

In the distance she could see a couple kids tending some plants. She finally asked Owen about that, and he said that there were about 30-40 kids in the valley between all the settlements and that they worked in the fields with the families they lived with. It went without saying that they too were brought here without parents and had to find new families to live with.

Sarah asked about schools and was told that there were no official schools but that each of the outposts that had children also had teachers that helped instruct the young children in the bigger villages and that they spent about half their day working and the other half in school or playing with other kids. Sarah decided that she would have to hunt out one of the local teachers and speak with them about what they teach and how they do it, as she wanted tips and pointers to do the same up in Beaver Crossing.

When the tour was done, Mark asked who he would talk to about doing some trade contracts, and he was referred to Jill, who was the farm manager. He took them back to the center of the outpost, and he helped them find Jill. While Mark talked to Jill, Sarah excused herself after finding out who the local teacher was, and she went to talk to them. Jill sat down to talk to Mark in an office she had in town. She first asked Mark about himself and where he came from.

He explained to her that he came down the river from the zone north of them where there was a lake and a giant wheat field where they had created a village named Beaver Crossing. He explained about how they had started the Grainfields project and had to set up some trade contracts as part of it. He also told her about the Forgeworks project that was completed a while back in the forest zone north of where he lived this excited her a lot.

Mark pulled out a dozen examples of metal items that he had been sent down with to show off. She knew that those would be worth a fortune, and that alone would be worth a contract for some goods. Mark then brought in a 50 pound bag of grain that had been taken down on the mule and brought it in to show Jill. She was excited about that and immediately wanted to buy the bag, which Mark agreed to sell through their system shop, which she gave him access to.

Though the system, the wheat here was worth about 6 times what it was worth in Beaver Crossing, which Mark was not surprised about. He then purchased from Sunvine Farms tomatoes, peppers, and 8 other veggies that the farm sold. When he was done, he had enough credits left over to buy about 3 times the amount of goods he bought, but he did not have space for it and would need to make another trip down in the future to get it.

He also set up trade deals with Beaver Crossing for wheat in exchange for vegetables to start as soon as they were able to make a decent trail from the north down to this outpost. Mark asked her about river traffic, and she said they have a limited amount of it. They have a couple groups that have made towpaths down both sides of the river between this outpost and the orchards across the river down to River Bend Trading Post and suggested he talk to them about the future possibilities of trade farther upriver.

Mark made arrangements for him and Sarah to stay the night in the outpost before he traveled farther south in the morning. While he waited for Sarah to return, he went and wandered around the farm and talked to various farmers about their goods and the future goods his village would be sending downstream. When Sarah returned, she told Mark about her day. She had found a school teacher who had an actual class for it.

And the teacher had shared with her the things she had learned about getting the skill and possible skill paths for teachers and talked about another teacher that Sarah should meet with at River Bend Trading Post. Mark then handed her one of each of the ten vegetables he had purchased. Sarah was so delighted when she took the items that she let out a squeal. She had hit level five and was over halfway to level 6 now.

Sarah went to bed excited; she knew with the task that she had received to get different food items and with all that she had heard about being here, she would level up to 6 and maybe even level 7 by the end of this trip. They finally went to bed and looked forward to their next stop tomorrow.